The Unrealism of Realists
(Moscow-On-Thames) For the latest another addition to my (very long) list of reasons why the community of international relations scholars who call themselves realists should be banned from using the term,…
Moscow Seeks to Sow Discord During NATO Jubilee
(EDM) Russia regularly mixes demonstrations of military might and claims of devotion to cooperation with the West as a means of weakening Western solidarity. And Moscow has been fine-tuning this conspicuously…
Kazakhstan: Tested by Transition
(Chatham House) A partial handover of political power through an orchestrated transition takes Kazakhstan into uncharted territory. Will it be able to pursue modernization and reform, and break from its authoritarian…
Caspian Energy Producers in the ‘New Oil Order’: Neglected by the West, Looking East 2
(CAD) The shale revolution and the transition to a low-carbon economy in the industrialized West have ushered in a new era of energy. The Trump administration in the U.S. has pushed a new ‘America…
Russia’s Economic Prospects: The Perils of a Petrostate
(RAD) Russia is an ailing petrostate, but it is not clear if it is failing. It faces three sources of instability: shifts in international energy markets, the challenge of climate change,…
Marat: This is what peaceful resistance against corrupt government looks like in Central Asia. No signs of provocateurs, no arrests, and a self-organized public
(Eurasianet) Hundreds of people ventured out into freezing conditions in Kyrgyzstan’s capital on November 25 to demand an investigation into years of corruption allegedly perpetrated by senior government officials. The 90-minute…
Critical Biopolitics of the Post-Soviet From Populations to Nations [NEW BOOK]
(Co-authored by Andrey Makarychev) This book is a critical attempt to cast a biopolitical gaze at the process of subjectification of Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Estonia in terms of multiple…
Why Ukraine’s president said there had been ‘no pressure’ from Trump
(Monkey Cage) In this week’s impeachment hearings, government officials have been detailing the Trump administration’s alleged attempts to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in congressionally approved aid for Ukraine’s defensive…
Omelicheva: Without U.S. military aid, Russia-backed rebels would have controlled more Ukrainian territory
(The Atlantic) When Adam Schiff asked Bill Taylor, the first witness in the House’s public impeachment hearings, to explain to Americans why U.S. security assistance to Ukraine matters for their own security, America’s…
Global terrorism and anti-terrorism after ISIL: Two key aspects that will not change soon
(Global Terrorism Index 2019) How much change should we really expect in global terrorism patterns and anti-terrorism after the demise of the physical core of Islamic State of Iraq and the…
Political Farce Russian-Style: Putin Complains About Corruption
(EDM) Russia is often described in the West and by its own “non-systemic” opposition as a police state and an autocracy, and with good reason. The suppression of street protests in…
Special Double Issue: The Foreign Policy Attitudes of Russian Elites, 1993–2016 [Lussier, Gel’man, Tucker, Hale]
(Post-Soviet Affairs) Although a vibrant literature on mass public opinion in Russia emerged in the wake of communism’s collapse in the USSR, the systematic investigation of elite attitudes using survey…